It's August, NCR back on lockdown, but DSWD still giving out aid
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila and neighboring areas have come in and out of lockdowns, yet the social welfare department has yet to complete distributing cash aid to the poor, which the agency now promises to finish by “middle of the month.”
As of Aug. 4, around 9.4 million families have benefited from P60.7 billion in aid under the government’s social amelioration program launched to assist people heavily disadvantaged by the pandemic and lockdowns.
Broken down, 1.4 million were regular beneficiaries of conditional cash transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (4Ps), 5.02 million were non-4Ps recipients, 2.3 million were considered waitlisted who did not receive first batch of subsidies, and another 677,356 were people from areas not under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) targets to assist 14.1 million households with a budget of P96 billion.
The running tally represents the second tranche of assistance, which has moved terribly slower than the first aid distribution from end-March to May, a situation that has left even lawmakers bewildered at one point, given the agency’s claims that cashless systems are being used to speed up the process. As it is, the second batch of aid should been fully distributed last May.
“We are asking for more patience from the beneficiaries,” Social Welfare Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje said in Filipino at an online briefing.
“The department faced many obstacles in distributing the cash assistance,” he added.
Challenges
But the hindrances Paje mentioned, ranging from duplication of aid and unliquidated cash from the first tranche from local governments, are not new. The same problems were encountered the first time DSWD spearheaded the massive program in March, especially while officials were completing the entire list of 17.96 million beneficiaries at the time.
Come June, DSWD promised a quicker disbursement of aid, and many hoped that since the list was already finalized in the first batch, the process would be easily completed. But the opposite happened, and now disruptions such as duplicated names and incomplete recipient information are slowing down payouts.
“There were also beneficiaries residing in far-flung areas which are difficult to reach as well as those living in conflicted–affected areas. The health risks to our field personnel also slowed down the cash distribution,” Paje explained.
This is in contrast to expectations of a quicker turnaround, especially after DSWD partnered with private cashless systems like Globe Telecom Inc.’s GCash and PLDT Inc.’s PayMaya to electronically deliver aid to beneficiaries. President Rodrigo Duterte, who was informed of the slow payouts, directed uniformed personnel to take the lead in distribution, but even that did not help.
Changing number of beneficiaries
Instead, the tedious process of removing names in the list only resulted into ever-changing number of beneficiaries even while the budget for the program remained the same. From 17.96 million in the first tranche, second batch recipients decreased to 13.5 million after removing people residing in areas under a looser general community quarantine (GCQ).
But on Tuesday, Paje said that as per final check second tranche recipients would go down from 17.96 million to 14.1 million. This was after the removal of 675,933 duplicated names, 239,859 ineligibles and 58,725 who “voluntarily” returned cash to DSWD.
Cities and municipalities, which were given the chance to submit their own list of beneficiaries to DSWD, also gave only 3.2 million names out of 5 million allotted them, resulting into fewer recipients than initially estimated.
The program’s budget, however, remains intact at P96 billion, which Budget Undersecretary Laura Pascua reiterated on Tuesday had already been given to DSWD.
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